View full sizeTony Kurdzuk/The Star-LedgerThe Nets' Deron Williams made the NBA All-Star team for the third straight season.

2012 NETSMidseason Record: 10-25

The Nets’ final season in New Jersey hasn’t been pretty so far. The overall record is 10-25, which is bad enough, but they’re 3-13 at home, which suggests they really can’t wait to leave the Prudential Center.

The truth is, this year was never about leaving New Jersey on a high note; instead, it was all about positioning the franchise as it heads to its new home in Brooklyn next fall. It was about getting Dwight Howard, which is why GM Billy King — with all that salary cap room when the lockout ended — wasn’t a major player in the crazy 2011 free-agent market. He was saving the money with hopes he could trade for Howard this season.

The result is a team that lacks talent and depth and has no true small forward on the active roster. The return of Brook Lopez, who broke his foot just before the season started, will improve the talent level, and if Lopez is traded for Howard, that will improve it even more.

So the final 31 games of the New Jersey Nets — and the final 17 NBA games in New Jersey — should be easier on the eyes than the past 2½ seasons. Just don’t get your hopes up that the Nets will extend their time in New Jersey by making the playoffs.

THE STUD

He probably hasn’t been as consistently dominant as the Nets would like, but Deron Williams is having quite a season, averaging a career-best 22.2 points per game, plus 8.2 assists. He has five games of 30 or more points and 21 games of 20 or more. And he’s done most of that with Brook Lopez sidelined, which has allowed defenses to constantly trap, double-team and otherwise focus their efforts on stopping Williams.

THE DUD

They outbid the Knicks to sign Shawne Williams to a two-year, $6.1 million contract as a free agent, thinking he could be the kind of 3-point-shooting forward off the bench who could space the floor and stretch defenses. But the 6-9 Williams never got it going. He had problems with an old injury in his left foot that bothered him all season and recently underwent season-ending surgery. He finished with dismal numbers: 4.9 points, 2.7 rebounds per game and shooting percentages of 28.6 from the field and 24.1 from 3-point range.

MOMENT TO RECALL

With 3:33 remaining in the fourth quarter and the Nets nursing an 11-point lead against the Knicks on Feb. 20, coach Avery Johnson reinserted Deron Williams. He immediately hit a 17-foot jump shot that put the Nets up 94-81 with 3:13 to play. Williams would foul out six seconds later, but the Nets would hold on to complete their biggest victory of the first half.

MOMENT TO FORGET

With 2:27 left in the fourth quarter of a Feb. 8 loss to Detroit, Pistons big man Greg Monroe drove in from the left wing, past Kris Humphries, and dunked over guard Keith Bogans. Landing wrong, Bogans broke his ankle and tore a ligament in his left foot. Coach Avery Johnson was upset on the play because the Nets allowed Monroe to go to his left, when the Nets bench was screaming to take away Monroe’s left. "He has two left hands!" Johnson said after the game. Bogans had season-ending surgery a few days later and a few days after that was waived.

THREE HIGHS

1. Beating the Knicks

The Nets had failed to do so in their first meeting, on Feb. 4, when the Knicks were floundering and coach Mike D’Antoni’s job was in jeopardy. A desperate D’Antoni gave point guard Jeremy Lin a try in that game and he killed the Nets, becoming an instant worldwide sensation — "Linsanity" was born. Sixteen days later, though, a super-motivated Deron Williams went off for 38 points and the Nets got their revenge against Lin and Knicks, 100-92, at Madison Square Garden to finish a three-games-in-three-nights stint in style.

2. Beating the Bulls to end an eight-game losing streak

Two nights before they beat the Knicks, the Nets went to Chicago to take on the Bulls, who had the best record in the NBA at the time. The Nets were on an eight-game losing streak and this was the first of three games in three nights. They were still without Brook Lopez, who had missed the entire season with a broken foot, but felt ready to return. The Nets, however, decided to hold off on bringing back Lopez until the following night. Nevertheless, playing against a Bulls team that was without the injured Derrick Rose and Rip Hamilton, the Nets put together their best defensive effort of the year for a shocking 97-85 victory.

3. Sending three players to All-Star Weekend

Rookie MarShon Brooks was a lock to go to the Rising Stars Challenge for first- and second-year players. But despite his statistical superiority, there were critics who weren’t happy point guard Deron Williams was chosen to play in the All-Star Game. They pointed to the fact the Nets were a losing team and weren’t deserving of an All-Star. Nets management stood up for Williams’ selection, and then, a week later, Anthony Morrow was picked to participate in the 3-point shootout. The fact that Morrow is the favorite to win the event is nice, of course, but for a 10-25 team to have three All-Star Weekend participants is still pretty amazing.

Losing Lopez was the closest thing to a disaster. The 7-foot center was the centerpiece to the efforts to trade for Dwight Howard, but he — along with Deron Williams — was critical to the team in terms of how it would play and how much success it would have. With Lopez undergoing surgery three days before the season opener, the Nets were forced to trade for Mehmet Okur, who is not half the player Lopez is and soon was felled by a back injury that has currently sidelined him for the past 16 games. How much better the Nets would have been had they had Lopez is unknown, obviously. But they would have been better.

2. Consecutive losses to Detroit, Feb. 8 and 10

On Feb. 1, with injuries and illness reducing the Nets to only eight players in uniform, they beat their former coach, Lawrence Frank, and the Detroit Pistons at home, 99-96. Eight was enough against Detroit, and as bad as things had been for the Nets, they could console themselves with the notion they weren’t as bad as the woeful Pistons. But a week later, the Nets pulled a no-show when the Pistons returned to Newark and won, 99-92. Not only did the Nets lose the game, but guard Keith Bogans, who’d been signed just before the first Pistons game, broke his ankle and tore a ligament in his foot and had season-ending surgery the next week. Two days after that loss, the Nets traveled to Detroit and played worse, losing, 109-92, in a game that wasn’t as close as the score. It was the Nets’ fifth loss in a row, on the way to eight.

3. Loss to the Raptors on Jan. 29

A stunning road victory over the 76ers in Philadelphia and an impressive revenge win over the Cavaliers in Cleveland two days later had given the Nets their only winning streak of the season. A turnaround had begun, it seemed. If they took care of business at home against a Toronto Raptors team missing its best player, Andrea Bargnani, who knew what it might lead to? They never got the chance to find out. In a truly stupefying performance, the Nets, for the first time all season, lost a game they were expected to win, 94-73. It started a stretch in which they would lose 10 of 11 games.

THREE REASONS TO LOOK AHEAD

1. Brook Lopez. The return to health of the fourth-year center will make a huge difference. With Lopez in the post, the Nets have a legitimate inside scoring threat they have not had all season, and that will increase the play-calling options. Lopez will draw double-teams, which should loosen defenses for Deron Williams, making it easier to get to the basket for the point guard. With a healthy Lopez and Williams, the Nets can put some pressure on the teams at the bottom of the playoff picture in the East.

2. Dwight Howard. The odds are probably 50-50 that the Nets land the Magic’s All-Star center in a trade, and if they do, then they’ll instantly vault themselves into the same neighborhood, talent-wise, as the elite of the Eastern Conference. If they do get Howard, the Nets may be too far back in the playoff chase to catch up. But the combination of Williams and Howard would surely get them close — and would draw a lot of national attention to the franchise, which would be priceless as the team makes the move to Brooklyn next fall.

3. MarShon Brooks. He could be on the move, along with Lopez, if the team is able to swing a deal for Howard. But until that happens, if it does, this is one rookie worth watching. He has had a choppy first season so far, missing nine of 10 games at one point with leg, toe injuries. But his career high 24 points last Wednesday against Orlando showed once again his potential to develop into a consistent and exciting scorer in the league.